first one egg appeared...
next afternoon a second egg...
I tried my best to keep the blinds closed and leave them in peace but it was an ill fated spot for many reasons. Not long after this photo the mate was devoured by a hawk which Keith saw as he was coming home one afternoon. That evening we listened as the survivor called but got no familiar reply... and eventually abandoned the nest and it's two white eggs.
In the following days we watched for the lone dove out the windows. Out back I found that it found a new partner who was very attentive, they preened together in the cedar trees.
Then they started a new nest in the tree about ten feet from the old nest still holding the eggs abandoned and undisturbed.
It's close but not easy to photograph, the drama continues in that area each day. I took a short video of them early in the process of building that new nest.
In the backyard I hung the usual house wren house for the wrens I heard singing it's mating call back in early April. Now that house is full of twigs and when I went out to sit in the garden I noticed a mate has joined the male bird who built the nest and began adding her own grassy bed on top of the twigs.
Look closely you will see she has a fine sprig of grass in her beak and the big twigs hang out the bottom thru the air vents at the base of the house.
Behind me in the choke cherry tree which is beginning to flower another nest! This year, lets hope the cats or raccoons don't attack it, on a branch another dove is nesting and keeping a watchful eye on me in the garden.
It was a great spot that some robins built in last spring and raised a brood of three orange breasted babies.
Now all we need is a bunch of tent caterpillars to spin their nests in the native choke cherry tree to provide food to these babies that will soon arrive looking extremely hungry!
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